The Thing I Thought You Wouldn't Understand
by webling-girl05
Summary: What're you doing, Evans? Nothing you would understand, Potter. Looks like a collage to me. Well, then you wouldn't understand what it's about. lj oneshot. happy ending!


Author's Note: I hope you like it! I think this is the only thing that I've posted on this sight that I'm really proud of. I hope you like it!

_**Haylie**_

_**Disclaimer: Only the plot and Kellie are mine, everything else is all Jkr's.**_

"What're you doing, Evans?" James said irritably as he walked into the Common room.

"Nothing you would understand, Potter." Her voice was cool and nonchalant. That was the way things were between them. Cool, calm. Things couldn't stay the way they were. They couldn't be together forever.

"Looks like a collage to me."

"Well, you wouldn't be able to understand what it's about."

"Okay then."

He walked up the stairs, retreating to his dorm room, the way he had so many times in the past months. James, in all honesty, was heartbroken. He and Lily had been together for a while…two months. But of course their relationship became complicated. Between Quidditch, Head Duties, their N.E.W.T. classes, and their friends, they sometimes found little time for each other. And when you're Lily, dating the most gorgeous guy in school, you're bound to be a little suspicious of why _your_ boyfriend is talking to _those_ girls. Not that she had been overly possessive; who wouldn't wonder why their boyfriend is talking and laughing with girls that are so obviously into him? Lily wasn't so innocent either; she had her fair share of guy friends that she got into very animated discussions with. Maybe when you're so young and you're so busy with the required things, you don't think much of the things you take for granted. Well, whatever the reason, they ended it with a flourish and a bang, just like the old times. The whole school had heard about it. And yet they remained semi-civil.

Lily clipped another picture, smiling at the memory.

She was walking through Hogsmeade with her friend Kellie, and who came up behind them but Sirius Black, holding a pair of ice skates.

"_What are you doing, Black?" Kellie asked rolling her eyes._

"_You want to go skating?" He asked._

"_What?" _

"_Come skating with me."_

_She hesitated, and then smiled. "O-okay."_

They had gone skating, with Lily in tow, as she had nothing else to do. Lily had brought her camera, and snapped some adorable shots. Sirius gently holding Kellie's waist as she tried to skate backwards; Kellie lightly biting her lip and smiling up at Sirius. It was a good shot.

Pasting it down onto the cardboard, another picture caught her eye. She glanced at it before instantly turning it over.

"_And I was like 'no way' and she was like 'yeah way' and so I walked away and she started like running after me with a-----, Lily? Are you listening?" Kellie asked, turning to look concernedly at Lily._

"_Huh? Oh, right, yeah," Lily stuttered, her face turning red._

"_What were you---oh my gosh, you were looking at a guy! Who is he?" Kellie looked around the hall. Then suddenly she smiled a very wicked smile. "You were staring at Potter… weren't you?"_

Lily looked down at the floor. "I knew it! You like Potter!" Kellie exclaimed, too loudly. Lily ducked her head, preparing for the blush that was sure to come from the truth of that statement, and the arrogant remark that James was sure to make. But then something told her to look up, and so she did. What she saw amazed her. James Potter, formerly incredibly arrogant Quidditch star obsessed with dating Lily, was smiling at her. And not an I'm-so-happy-because-the-girl-I-fancy-fancies-me-too smile, or an I-knew-it-all-along-Evans smile; just a friendly, almost apologetic, smile.

Well, that guy was gone, and a bitter, unfriendly one had replaced both the cocky Quidditch star and the friendly Head Boy. Lily put the picture beneath another one that had a happy memory of her and James. They couldn't be in this collage; they wouldn't fit in with the theme.

"Lily, this is amazing! I can't wait to see the rest of the pictures!" Kellie said as Lily showed her what she had done on the collage.

"You want to come by after our last class and help me pick out some more to put in? I have so many, I can't decide," Lily offered.

"Sure, if we survive until then…Binns is the most boring teacher _ever_!" The two best friends laughed as they walked into History of Magic.

"How about this one?" Kellie suggested, pointing to a picture.

"James and Macy from when they were dating?" Lily asked, wrinkling her nose.

"Yeah, it's adorable."

"Er---okay," Lily reluctantly agreed. "Look, I think we have enough pictures. Can you get the glue? I left it downstairs."

"Why don't you use your wand?"

"I told you already. I took these pictures with a muggle camera, developed them the muggle way, and cut them with scissors as opposed to using my wand. I will use glue, not a pasting charm. Please go get it?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever." Kellie walked downstairs to the common room, only to see someone else there.

"H-hey, James. Er, Lily invited me over and we're working on her, um, collage, and she forgot her glue, so I came to get it and…sorry. I'll just leave," Kellie said cautiously. She walked to the stairs.

"Why are you leaving?" James asked from the kitchen where he was getting a drink.

"What do you mean, why am I leaving?" Kellie asked, confused.

"I mean, it's not like we don't know each other; if you care to remember, I think that we used to be friends."

"Well, you and Lily…broke up, and I wasn't sure where I stood in your mind after that. And besides, you and Lily are so…generic to each other…the situation's just strange," Kellie explained.

"Personally, I'd like to remain friends, unless you've changed into a totally different person since we last talked…and I need to ask you something."

"Shoot."

He told her, and she beamed, saying, "I have the _perfect_ idea."

"What do you think? Is there too much sepia and not enough black and white?" Lily asked nervously.

"Lily, no, not at all. It's beautiful. Really," she added at Lily's glance of doubt.

They heard the portrait hole open and James walked over. "Don't you think it looks nice, James?" Kellie prompted.

"Yeah, it's amazing," James agreed.

"Thank you." Lily said civilly.

"Can I talk to you for a minute, Lily?" James asked.

"Sure." She followed him to the couches.

"Look, I'm sorry for the way I've been acting lately, Lily. I'm sorry," James said sincerely.

"You don't have to be," Lily replied, again sounding civil.

"…"

"So, that's…it?" James asked.

"What's 'it'?" Lily questioned.

"Lily, I said that I'm sorry!" James exclaimed.

"And I said that you don't have to be!" Lily countered, walking away.

"Guess that idea wasn't so perfect after all," Kellie mumbled apologetically to James.

"Don't worry about it," James said.

"I can't find it! Kellie, where could it be? Those shots were amazing! The little girl peeking out from behind her hands in black in white and the girl from Hufflepuff tilting her head to the sun…Kellie, I couldn't've lost it!" Lily cried.

"We'll find it, don't worry. Let's go check the Common Room again, okay?" Kellie said, trying to comfort her best friend.

Lily walked into her room and collapsed on her bed. The collage was gone. They had looked everywhere. She had worked so hard, so insanely hard. It was beautiful too, really good photographs and the way it blended…it was stunning.

'Oh, well,' she thought to herself. Assuming that her homework would take her mind off of it, she walked over to her desk.

There, lying as if it had always been there (though she knew it was not), was her collage. But something was…different. Lily looked it over once more, trying to find what had changed. Then she saw it. In the bottom left hand corner, in place of the picture of James and Macy, was one of her and James.

_The whole lot of them (the Marauders and Lily and Kellie) were trying to fight their way through a particularly crowded corridor, and yet, Lily and James turned to look at each other and beamed._

Lily smiled, a smile almost as big as the one that day, and turned it over. In James's calligraphy handwriting was a little note.

**It's about being in love.**


End file.
